New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
Traditions of folk magic and healing in the Ozark Mountain region are often deceptively simple. Outsiders have often commented upon the "simplistic" or "primitive" nature of Ozark hillfolk, leading to many unwarranted stereotypes over the past two centuries. Nothing could be farther from the truth, however. Outwardly, yes, many of our traditions are hidden behind simple rituals, some of which don't even involve any vocal or somatic components at all. And then there is of course the hillfolk love of repurposing household objects for magic and healing. This tradition was once derived from a sense of necessity, but I personally connect it to the inborn cunning of Ozark healers and magical ...
It is not an easy existence, this human experience. It is not all rainbows and unicorns, or endless delights. Life itself can be and usually is pretty challenging. So, how can we stay positive in a negative world? I've written a book on this very subject, called Positive Pagan: How to Stay Upbeat in an Offbeat World. It's one of my favorite things to talk about, and a never-ending quest for me, to find more ways to get back to a positive frame of mind. As a fellow human, I know that life can be very overwhelming, so I share some very concrete ways in my book about returning to the flow of positivity from a Pagan perspective. No matter what spiritual traditions you follow, the rituals, ...
Any kitchen witch worth their salt (sorry for the pun!) will undoubtedly have his or her favorite ingredients—the kind that one's pantry just feels incomplete without—but I venture to guess that there are some ingredients fairly common to us all, no matter where we live and what kind of witchcraft and magick we practice! Here are ten of my favorites (whittled down from a considerably longer list!) and I hope they will strike a chord with you, too; you will also find a lot more ideas and recipes using these ingredients in my new book, The Enchanted Kitchen. 1. LemonsHonestly, I simply can't imagine my kitchen without the basket of lemons sitting on the windowsill; I use lemons ...
Queer men often find ourselves alienated from religion. Many of us walked away from the religions of our upbringing, having found them to be detrimental to our spiritual and mental health. That the major religions have been mostly antagonistic toward our kind (and quite often violently so) should offer ample explanation as to why we would search elsewhere to sate our spiritual longings. Unlike its mainstream counterparts, Modern Witchcraft mostly dispenses with a moralistic attitude toward sex and on the surface is quite accepting of queer folk. I say, "on the surface" because if you start to dig even just a little, you can start to see the unconscious biases that often lay at the heart ...
